We’ve made it to Day 11 in our October Writing Challenge, and it’s also time for our weekly FMF writing prompt link-up!
If you’ve missed some posts in my series, 31 Days of Writing Tips, you can find the Table of Contents and get caught up here.
If you’re new to the link-up, find instructions here.
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Today’s FMF writing prompt is: DEEP
I can’t tell you how many times I cried in Starbucks while writing various drafts of my memoir, A Place to Land.
Each time I would look around before reaching into my pocket or purse for a tissue, then try to dab my eyes and nose without too many people noticing I was actually crying.
Sometimes I opted for a cubicle in the library where I was less likely to be seen, but still, the tears came.
I could understand them and even justify their presence when it was the first time I was writing the words, fresh and raw. But the second time I read them? And the third? And the thirteenth? Why was I still crying?
I knew I had to go back to the deep places, the recesses of my soul where the patchy, painful memories were tucked away on purpose so they would be hard to find. I had to dig for them, even if I didn’t particularly care to see them again, in order to steward my story well. I couldn’t leave out the sad parts to leave a more palatable taste in my reader’s mouths, nor could I skim over them to avoid risking my own emotional wounds getting re-opened. I had to go to the deep places to do justice to the story, and to give God the glory for what He has done.
And you know what?
I didn’t expect this as an outcome, but doing the work of going to the deep places actually helped me to heal. For the first time since my mom died in 2011, the grief around significant days like Mother’s Day, her birthday, and the anniversary of her death was tempered.
As if the writing itself removed the stinger and left only the scar.
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Join the link-up with your own five-minute free write below:Â
Sometimes we have to plumb the deep
places we don’t want to feel,
and keep from an emotional sleep
to allow God bid us heal.
It hurts to walk those old sad ways
where once lived joy unbounded,
but ’tis memory of the dear lost days
that keeps us clear and grounded.
We are not free-birds soaring high,
but beholden to an iron weight
that holds us when life’s storms come nigh,
and saves us from the sparrow’s fate.
We will not thereby be dashed to earth,
but rise up in remembrance’s birth.
And that’s what made your book such a blessing to me. Thankful you went deep, that you experienced deeper healing and that you were willing to share your journey so openly.
You are sweet, Anna. Thank you for reading! So glad the Lord used it in your life.
Just beautiful! My tears joined yours as I read your words. And in some ways it helped me heal too not because I lost a parent but because one walked away. I pray you will soon be writing another book for us to read!
Hi Kate. I joined the group sometime back. But I’m still lost. I’m wondering how to connect to other writers and am totally confused on how to catch up with the 31 days writing challenge. Can you please help me sort out an easy path.